Goff reveals what some of Worth's texts said

Labour leader Phil Goff says he has not asked the Indian woman alleged to have received "sleazy" text messages from ex-minister Richard Worth what she said in response to his texts and phone calls or whether she ever asked him to stop contacting her.

"Well, I really haven't thought about doing that," he told the Herald yesterday.

"I am not wanting to intrude particularly on asking her for what she said."

But he has revealed some of the texts set out in a written account by the woman, a Labour activist, of the contact from Dr Worth between November and February 23 when contact stopped.

Mr Goff says the 40 texts and 60 phone calls verged on harassment and he made a private complaint about it to Prime Minister John Key on May 6.

Mr Key has said that Dr Worth denied in writing having acted inappropriately, but he has said that a single corroborating piece of evidence to the contrary could result in him being removed from caucus.

Mr Goff won't release the woman's account of her contact with Dr Worth and the woman has refused to answer questions from the Herald.

"These documents are to simply set the context for the wider thing," Mr Goff said. "It would be up to her whether she wanted to provide anything further."

Mr Goff has said that the texts individually sounded like "these people were two good friends".

"It is not what is in the texts that would close the case against Richard Worth," Mr Goff said.

The texts and the log of about 60 calls provided "the context" behind Dr Worth making her a job offer and of increasingly "sleazy" telephone calls.

According to Mr Goff five texts were sent on December 6 when she was in India. One of them, about the "Goa purchase", had been about a holiday Dr Worth wanted to have with her in Goa.

Another, with a reference to the ITG, was asking if she would join him on the India Trade Group trip he made to India - the private trip was made in February and got him into strife over perceived conflicts of interest.

Mr Goff said that according to her notes, she had also received a text about her getting a see-through top in Hyderabad.

She had not been sure whether he wanted the top for himself and so had texted him back to clarify.

His response was about getting him a tie and was signed with kisses. Mr Goff's file note suggests he told Mr Key of texts about "buying see-through clothing, going swimming, holiday in Goa".

The woman has not responded to requests from the Herald to answer some questions but she said in a statement last week: "I repeatedly made it clear to him that I didn't want a relationship with him."

Dr Worth resigned last week as a minister following a complaint from a Korean businesswoman to the police.

In the fall-out, the revelations about the private complaint to Mr Key emerged, although Mr Goff's and Mr Key's versions have varied - even as to the timing.

A testy Mr Key on Monday disputed Mr Goff's file note that their May 6 phone call took place between 9.45pm and 9.55pm - a claim Mr Goff verified yesterday with his own telephone record.

The woman has rejected a meeting with Mr Key's chief of staff, insisting on meeting only Mr Key. Mr Goff believes the woman will now directly contact Mr Key by letter.

He said Dr Worth offered the woman two positions, one as an ethnic affairs adviser and one on the Lotteries Grant Board, and then began texting and calling her in ways that suggested he wanted a relationship.

The woman is trying to retrieve from Vodafone some of the messages she deleted but Vodafone said in general it needed a police or court order to retrieve messages and even then it was not always possible.

THE TEXTS

* Do you want to come swimming?

* How you getting on with the Goa purchase?

* Does that possibly mean you might be back [in India] in mid January with a discreet ITG group?

* You are my favourite new best friend to use a Facebook expression. RWW

* I don't need anything. Perhaps a tie from the Indian School of Business at Gachibowli but that might be impossible. RWW XX